Utilization of dog and cat diapers is well known in the prior art. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,949 by O'Rourke issued on Mar. 21, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,421 by Lowman issued on Feb. 10, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,015 by Ohta issued on Sep. 21, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,985 by Shover issued on Nov. 7, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,847 by Kelly issued on Sep. 17, 1996; and US Patent Application Publication No.: 2011/0192357 by Pellegrini published on Aug. 11, 2011.
While each of the above-mentioned diapers have generally been satisfactory for their intended purpose, nevertheless they have not been entirely satisfactory. That is, due to the body shape of the rear hind portion of a dog or cat, many of the conventional animal diapers will not remain in place on the animal but instead, will slip and slide off the rear of the animal. This is true whether or not the diaper is soiled, but it is particularly true when the absorbent material within such a diaper becomes saturated with the urine and waste product of the animal. In either event, either the clean or the spent diaper may fall off the animal leaving the animal unprotected from soiling and causing unwanted and undesired damage to an indoor environment area or otherwise protected area where animal urine and waste product discharge is undesired and unwanted.
Recognizing this slippage problem, various solutions have been proposed in the form of improved diaper constructions and diaper support systems. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,105 by McKnight issued on Nov. 7, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 7,753,008 by Krenkel issued on Jul. 13, 2010; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,302,565 by Williams issued on Nov. 6, 2012.
Each of the above mentioned diaper support garments and harnesses have been generally satisfactory for their general intended purpose; nevertheless, they have not been entirely satisfactory. In this regard, if the animal owner desires to release his or her animal to an outside environment area for the purpose of eliminating their waste products, the support garment and diaper must be removed from the animal and then subsequently the diaper and the support garment must be placed once again on the animal, which is not only time consuming and inconvenient but may also because of such nuisance encourage the animal owner to leave a soiled diaper on the animal for an excessive period of time.
Therefore it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved diaper support system that prevents a soiled animal diaper from sliding off the animal either because of normal animal activity movement or because of excess diaper weight caused when the absorbent material within the diaper becomes saturated with the waste product of the animal.
It would also be highly desirable to have a new and improved diaper support system that does not require the support system to be removed from the animal when the animal is released to an outside environment for waste elimination purposes thereby encouraging the animal owner to release the animal to the outside environment on a more frequent basis.
Such a new and improved diaper support system should be universal and easy and convenient to use with animals of different breeds and sizes as well as with the various different types and kinds of utilized animal diapers. Finally, such a new and improved diaper support system should be relatively inexpensive and convenient to use with conventional animal protective and decorative clothing items like sweaters, T-shirts and the like.